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SEPTEMBER 2018
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Flight Time
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33
Interview
DRAWING
GIANTS
HE IS BEST KNOWN FOR THE ICONIC CHARACTERS HE BROUGHT TO LIFE IN
INSTANTLY-RECOGNISABLE COLLABORATIONS WITH THE LATE ROALD DAHL,
BUT CELEBRATED ILLUSTRATOR SIR QUENTIN BLAKE HAS A VAST BODY OF
WORK OUTSIDE OF THE
BFG
AUTHOR’S CANON, MUCH OF WHICH WAS
IMAGINED IN THE ARTIST’S SEASIDE HIDEAWAY IN LA ROCHELLE, FRANCE
he seaport of La Rochelle
arcs elegantly like a giant
clam, diligently protecting its
contents of gleaming sailboats.
It is eerily still, as the limestone
buildings that border the water glow in the
bright coastal sunlight. And as the light fades
into the evening, the city takes on another
magical quality, as you feel transformed to
another time… perhaps to the 17th century
when this port would have been bustling
not with travellers but fishermen, traders
and sailors.
In 2018, La Rochelle lives and breathes its
magnificent past as the salty air blows past
the ancient lighthouses, down the arcaded
walkways and weather-worn timber houses
and around the illuminated stone gargoyles
like something out of a storybook. It’s not
surprising, then, that it was the stunning
landscapes of the Charente-Maritime
department that first attracted famed British
illustrator and writer Sir Quentin Blake to
the area. Enchanted by the wide skies, flat
vistas and assortment of charming coastal
wildlife – including herons and storks – he
purchased a cottage there in 1990. It was a
seaside retreat in which he could while away
the days peacefully, all the while bringing to
life charming children’s-book characters.
Yet despite this magnificent and long
T
here made a certain amount of sense. I like
flat country and marshes – I’ve always liked
Romney Marsh in England – so I started to
look around and found a house that suited
me,” says the 85-year-old, who also admits
the purchase of a property abroad did
nothing to quell his workaholic tendencies.
“I’ve never quite mastered the art of the
holiday,” he laughs. “I can never get away
from the feeling that I want to be drawing,
so over the years I naturally became quite
involved in projects with schools locally, and
the library in nearby Rochefort – I’ve done
quite a lot of work here. We did one very big
project which actually came out in a book
called
A Sailing Boat in the Sky
, which is partly
written by the children.”
This urge to draw has been with Blake for
as long as he can remember and, growing up
in Sidcup, Kent, during the 1930s, he always
had a pencil in hand. This was certainly the
case during a long stint in the West Country
where he was evacuated during the war, then
again while at Cambridge, where alongside
reading English he would submit his cartoons
to satire magazine
Punch
. It was a habit that
not only marked his first paid work as a
published artist, but also shaped his trademark,
scrappy style. “I used to produce roughs as a
prelude to polished, finished drawings. One
day the art editor told me the roughs were
love affair with the south-western region of
France, Blake admits he discovered it almost
by accident. “What brought me here was
pure luck,” he tells me, “and I wonder where
I would have ended up had La Rochelle not
offered itself.
“It all started when I saw a photo… it was
in a magazine, I think. We set out, driving
through France, and when you drive, you
often miss things because your eyes are so
fixed on the road. At some point my friend
took over, and before long I found myself
gazing out of the window, unaware that
we’d actually arrived in the region. When
I realised where we were, it was a beautiful
coming together, and from that day I was
completely struck by the place and its beauty,
and I knew I needed to live here.”
For the long-term Francophile, the
decision to buy a second home overseas made
perfect sense. But even after finding huge
success and financial stability following those
iconic collaborations with Roald Dahl, Blake
was still daunted by the prospect of actually
owning a property abroad, though he now
admits that the purchase heralded a whole
new creative spark for his work.
“I came to the decision to buy around the
time I retired from teaching, reasoning that
I’d been published a lot in France and had
spent so much time there, to have a house
Wo r d s
S i mone L ee